Man Guilty Of Sexual Assault

Avoids Jail Time With Plea Admitting He Touched A Young Girl

March 21, 2007|By LARRY SMITH; Courant Staff Writer

ENFIELD — A 43-year-old former East Windsor man avoided time in jail Tuesday after pleading guilty to inappropriately touching a minor girl in 2005.

James Giorgio pleaded guilty to fourth-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor in Superior Court of Enfield. Judge Howard Scheinblum sentenced Giorgio to a seven-year suspended term with 10 years of probation.

Scheinblum also ordered Giorgio to register for 10 years as a sex offender, have no contact with the victim, undergo a sexual offender evaluation and have no unsupervised contact with a minor under 16.

Assistant State's Attorney Anthony Bochicchio said East Windsor police became aware of the situation in December 2005 after they were contacted by Windsor police. The victim, a girl under the age of 15, told police that incidents happened in East Windsor, Block Island, R.I., and Stowe, Vt., Bochicchio said.

The victim, the daughter of a friend of Giorgio's, told police that on one occasion in East Windsor he inappropriately touched her under her pajamas, and on a second occasion he hugged her then fondled her under her bra and asked her to take a shower with him, Bochicchio said.

Giorgio apologized to the girl for all of the incidents in November 2005, Bochicchio said.

Because of the plea agreement in Connecticut, prosecutors in Rhode Island will not pursue charges for an incident that happened on Block Island, Bochicchio said. The victim agrees with the resolution of the case but did not want to be heard in court, he added.

Attorney Rob Britt said his client, who now resides in East Lyme, has from the beginning sought to resolve the case in a way that did not cause the victim to have to testify or be deposed. Giorgio has said there are no winners in the resolution of the case, Britt said.

``Everyone in the case has a need to move forward,'' Britt said.

The outcome of the Connecticut charges convinced authorities in Rhode Island to drop their case after it became apparent that the prosecution in that state and the defense could not come to a resolution, Britt said. There are no legal issues in Vermont, he added.